Handoffs and transfers: how a call reaches the right person

A caller doesn’t care who answers. They care that whoever does already knows why they’re calling, so they don’t have to say it twice.

In Crulon a call can move in three ways: the AI agent hands it to a person, a person transfers it to a colleague, or either sends it to a number outside Crulon. Here’s how each one works, and what everyone on the call sees.

When the AI agent hands over

The agent hands a caller on when they ask for a person, or need something it can’t do. It can only send callers to the places you’ve set up, called call destinations: your billing team, an on-call technician, a mobile number, a Call Flow. A caller can never talk it into dialling some other number.

For each destination you write one sentence about who belongs there, such as “When the caller asks about a bill, a payment or a refund.” On every call, the agent reads those sentences and picks the one that fits.

Before it transfers, the agent checks with the caller (“I’ll put you through to our billing team. Is that all right?”), unless they’ve just asked for a person. Then it says a short line of your choosing, and your team’s phones ring.

The note travels with the call

As your team’s phones ring, the card shows which agent sent the call, where to, and a note the agent wrote for whoever answers: why the caller is calling, in a sentence or two. If the caller matched a contact, their name is there too.

Once someone answers, the note stays in their call bar as Handoff note, even if they refresh the page. Someone who answers on a desk phone sees the caller on the phone and the note in Crulon. Nobody has to ask “What’s this about?”

When nobody picks up

Every destination has a Ring for time, 30 seconds to start, and a choice for what happens if it runs out. What the caller gets depends on the kind of destination:

For your team and for an outside number on Bridge, the default is to hand the call back to the agent. It doesn’t leave the caller in silence: it tells them nobody was free and carries on, taking a message, opening a ticket or offering somewhere else.

If nobody on the team is available at all, because they’re away or on other calls, Crulon doesn’t ring for nothing. The caller hears “No one is available to take the call right now.” straight away, and the agent keeps helping.

Handing off to an outside number

Some calls belong outside Crulon: a technician’s mobile, another office, an answering service. Add the number as a destination and choose how the transfer works:

• Bridge keeps Crulon on the call while the number rings, with hold music for the caller. Crulon knows whether anyone answered, so the agent can come back if nobody did. The outside line sees the Crulon number you choose as its caller ID. This is the one to use unless you have a reason not to.
• Refer passes the call to your carrier and Crulon leaves straight away. It’s simpler, but there’s no hold music and no way back: if nobody answers, the call ends.

An outside number gets the call without the agent’s note, so put what matters in the announcement the caller hears. Every transfer is checked against your calling policy, so blocked countries and premium-rate numbers are refused, and emergency numbers can never be a destination.

Opening hours

A destination can have opening hours. Outside them, the agent doesn’t try the transfer at all. It tells the caller when that team opens, something like “Billing is closed now. It opens tomorrow at 8:00 AM.”, and helps another way.

When your team transfers a call

People hand calls to each other too. During a call, select the transfer button in the call bar and search for a person, a group or a number.

Pick a colleague who’s Available, add a note if you like, and select Transfer. The caller goes on hold with music while your colleague’s phones ring, and you stay on the line.

Your colleague’s card says Transferred by with your name, and your note underneath, so they pick up knowing what the call is about.

If they don’t answer within 30 seconds, or decline, the call comes back to you. The call bar says why, such as “Marcus Reed didn’t answer”. Select Resume to talk to the caller again, or Transfer… to try someone else. You can also Cancel while it’s still ringing.

Sending a call outside Crulon

To send a caller to an outside number, type it into the same search, or pick one of your saved outside numbers.

This one is final. The call leaves Crulon straight away, and you can’t take it back if nobody answers. If you’d rather your team only used approved numbers, turn off Let agents type a transfer number in Settings > Call destinations. Transfers to outside numbers then go only to the destinations you’ve saved.

Taking a call from the AI agent

There’s one more way a call reaches a person: you take it. Anyone with the permission can listen in to a call the agent has in Live calls, and take over. The agent leaves, and the caller is with you, mid-conversation. See Live calls.

What the record shows afterwards

Every handoff and transfer leaves a trail in Conversations:

• The outcome shows Transferred or Forwarded.
• The transcript and summary cover the part the agent handled. The conversation with your team isn’t transcribed.
• The recording includes the part with your team if your recording settings say so. A call sent to an outside number isn’t recorded after it leaves.
• AI minutes count the agent’s time up to the moment someone answers, including the ringing, up to your Ring for time. Your team’s talk time isn’t AI minutes.

People who can see call diagnostics also get a Handoffs list for each call: where each attempt went, who answered or why it didn’t connect, and whether the caller asked for a person or the agent decided.

A few things to know

• Transfers are cold. You can’t speak to a colleague privately before handing the caller over, so use the note.
• Some calls can’t be transferred: a call between colleagues, and a call you answered on a desk phone.
• Test handoffs with a real call. Talking to the agent in your browser can’t hand off, so publish the agent and call your number from a phone.

See Call destinations for how the pieces fit together, and the guide to handing calls to your team for every setting, step by step.